The Strife of Sanity
by Ashley the Great Sunflower
Summary: Alice travels to Beacon Academy with her teammates to participate in a Remnant-wide tournament being held there. But when she gets there, the group known as the White Fang begins making moves to kidnap her. Can she and her newfound friends, Team RWBY, survive this threat? Or will Alice be turned against them, fighting for the White Fang? Rated M for violence and mild sexual content
1. Alice, Meet RWBY

Something was chasing her. Laughing and chasing after her, its footfalls sounding like thunderbolts. Running, running, running. She can't fall now, not that she's come this far. Not….not now…

"Alice! Alice, awake! You are having a nightmare."

Alice jolted up from her cot in a cold sweat, breathing heavily. She checked her side and felt the reassuring presence of the Vorpal Blade strapped safely to her side in its sheath. A boy, a Faunus boy, stood next to her, looking a bit concerned.

"Thank you Chessur," Alice said, out of breath. She had a cutting English accent, and her long black hair was in a tangle around her face. Brushing it out of the way, she took a huge breath. "Are we nearly there?"

Chessur nodded. He was dressed in a disheveled gray suit that was missing a tie. He had a hole in the seat of his pants that let out a long bushy tail that reached down and curled around one of his ankles. His ears were slightly larger than that of a normal cat Faunus, and were quite furry. His eyes were a strange purple colour, and looked very much like cat eyes instead of normal human eyes.

"We should be arriving in a few hours to meet up with Headmaster Ozpin and our new partners, Team RWBY." Chessur said, frowning. His voice had a slight rumble to it, and was quite deep. Narrowing his eyes, he looked at Alice. "Are you alright, Alice? You look more disturbed than usual."

"I'm quite alright. Wake Absolem and Nevins, we should make ourselves presentable if we are to arrive in a few hours. Off with you then." Alice said, motioning Chessur away. The Faunus grinned and slowly faded away in a trail of purple smoke till only his grin and eyes were left.

"As you wish, madam." He said, and then the grin and eyes disappeared along with the rest of him. As the smoke dissipated, Alice coughed and swung her legs off the side of the bed. Taking another deep breath she stood up, trying to ignore the slight swaying of the airship.

She dressed herself in a blue and white blouse, with black slippers. Tossing her shoulder-length black hair behind her head, she walked up to the bridge of the airship.

"Captain Tarrant, are we nearly there?" she asked curtly, her hands clasped behind her back.

"Quite. I estimate about two hours before our arrival. Where are the rest of you?" The captain asked, adjusting his rather obnoxious bright red top hat.

"Rrright here." The voice of Chessur emerged from Alice's right as he materialized beside her in a whirl of smoke. The captain noted that Chessur rolled his r's more often than not, and wondered if he was doing it on purpose or not.

Two others emerged from behind Alice and took places at her left. A girl a little taller than Alice, with baby blue hair and pale skin. Her eyes were blood red and she had a bow and a quiver of arrows strapped to her back. Her armor was a full suit of brown leather, covering her entire body except for her head.

Next to her was a small boy nearly half their size with snow white hair and a nervous tick. He constantly blinked and wrung his hands, and had no visible weapon on him. But his outfit was a small suit not unlike Chessur's, except his was a darker gray and much more well-kept.

Chessur himself wore a pair of sinister looking gauntlets made of a dark gray metal, with overlapping plates causing a rippling effect across the length of the glove. The fingers looked more like claws, and on the palm of each glove was a small glass circle, behind which lied a white swirling mess of what looked like sand. The gloves fit so perfectly it almost seemed like they were part of the suit, or Chessur himself.

"I take it we've almost arrived?" Absolem spoke up, adjusting her bow. Blowing a stray strand of hair out of her face, she sat down against the wall and waited.

"Almost."Alice said, not looking at her teammate. She and Absolem didn't exactly get along, as Absolem was a few years her elder and believed that Alice was unfit for leadership. But she had settled down somewhat in the past six months they had been training together and accepted, however grudgingly, Alice's leadership.

Chessur made a rumbling noise in his throat that wasn't quite a purr nor a growl, but something in between. Nevins looked around nervously.

"Who are we meeting here again?" Nevins said, a small titter to his voice.

"Tourettes acting up again, Nev?" Chessur rumbled, grinning a little.

Nevins nodded and continued wringing his hands. "It gets really crazy whenever I get stressed or nervous. And I'm pretty nervous."

Alice sighed. "We are meeting the headmaster of Beacon Academy, Professor Ozpin. We are also to meet our…partners. They will train with us, guide us around the school, and otherwise assist us. They are called Team 'RWBY' and are apparently even stronger than us."

"Doubt it." Absolem muttered as she flicked a bug off the wall. "I hate to say it, but no one can come close to Alice in terms of sheer power. I mean with your-"

"That's enough of that." Chessur growled in a sinister tone. Absolem immediately shut up, showing a level of respect and a bit of fear at the strange Faunus boy. "We will not speak of that here, are we understood? Ozpin is already aware, and no one else need know unless Alice herself deems it necessary. Am I not correct?"

Alice nodded. "We are here for the tournament only. Then we shall see if Ozpin wishes to extend an official invitation to become proper students. But until then, that little detail stays secret. Am I understood, Absol?"

Absolem didn't respond, choosing to huff her annoyance instead. Alice rounded on her and approached very slowly.

In an icy tone, Alice repeated herself. "Is my _order_," she said, putting a lot of emphasis on 'order' "understood, Absolem?"

Absolem gritted her teeth and muttered "Yes. I understand."

Alice smiled. "There. That wasn't so hard, was it?" she said, her voice considerably warmer. Absolem chose to ignore her and went back to annoying the spider that was dead set on climbing the wall of the airship.

"Almost there. See the towers? That's Beacon." The captain said, smiling. "We arrive in about ten minutes."

"Are we prepared, Team Anarchy?" Alice asked curtly. A chorus of grunted agreement was heard, and the group headed towards the hanger bay where they would disembark.

…

As they left the launch pad and the airship took off once more, they walked down a seemingly deserted walkway. Luckily there were no clouds, and Alice could clearly see five figures waiting for them not too far ahead.

As they approached, the oldest among them, a tall man with gray hair and spectacles, held out his hand.

"Team Anarchy, I presume?" He asked, shaking Alice's hand.

"You would be correct. I am Alice. This is Nevins, Absolem, and Chessur, my second in command." Alice said, indicating her teammates with a sweep of her arm.

"I am Professor Ozpin, headmaster of Beacon and your host for the next three months. And may I introduce you to your partners, guides, and hopefully friends, Team RWBY?" he said, stepping back.

A short, redheaded girl in a red cape and black blouse jumped up excitedly and marched forward with quite a bit of bravado for such a tiny body. She stuck her hand out and smiled.

"I'm Ruby Rose, leader of Team RWBY! How do you do?" she announced, shaking Alice's hand vigorously.

Alice frowned. This Ruby was already rubbing her the wrong way and it had barely been five minutes. "Hello…Ruby." She said tightly, releasing her hand as soon as she could.

"This is Weiss," Ruby said, indicating a white-haired girl in a matching dress, "I guess she's _my_ second in command." She said, smiling. Weiss smiled at this proclamation, and tossed her ponytail behind her shoulder. Alice noticed she had it on the side of her head, which she found quite interesting.

"My older sister Yang," this time pointing at a tall blonde wearing a leather jacket and rather short black shorts. She grinned and put her hands on her hips.

"And that's Blake!" Ruby finished, pointing at the last member of her team. She looked up with a bland expression on her face and nodded. Chessur took special interest in her, examining the purple bow on the top of her head with narrowed eyes and a small smile on his face.

Alice nodded slowly and walked up to the other three girls, shaking their hands gently. "I hope," she said with a serious expression, "that we can all get along."

Ruby grinned and Alice sighed. This was going to be a bit difficult, but nothing she couldn't handle.

…

"You guys are sleeping in the room across from us. It's empty, and you can let us know if you need anything. We have classes, which you are welcome to sit in on, or you can go use the training fields if you want I suppose." Ruby said as they arrived at the dorms. "Any questions so far?"

"Yeah, I got one." Absolem said, raising her hand slightly. "When's the tournament being held?"

Ruby blinked. "Is that what you're here for? You're three months early."

"Ozpin wants to observe us living here," Alice started icily, glaring at Absolem. "So he can see if we fit in. If we do, and we enjoy it here, he will extend an official invitation to become students of Beacon."

"Ohh, I see." Ruby said, grinning. "Well, I hope you guys are tough. Beacon's full of really strong people!"

"So I've heard." Alice said, smiling tightly. "Anyway, is there a place we can eat? I'm rather hungry."

"There's a mess hall not too far from here. C'mon, it's getting to be around lunchtime anyway. Coming guys?" Ruby said, turning to the rest of her team, who all heartily agreed.

Ruby led the group down the halls, and Alice noticed Weiss falling back to walk next to her. "Yes?" she asked, trying to be nice.

"Are you guys really just here for the tournament?" Weiss asked, curious.

"Yes. After that ends, we will be leaving provided Ozpin does not make us an offer."

"And if he does?"

Alice remained silent for a moment. "Then we will consider it." She finally said, smiling.

Weiss nodded. "Well, I've never actually heard of you guys. Team Anarchy, right? How strong would you say you guys are, as a team or individually?"

Alice frowned in concentration. "As a team? Quite strong. They listen to me when I give orders, even Absolem. Individually…well, that's debatable."

"What do you mean?"

"Our semblances. None of them are particularly spectacular in combat, except maybe Nevins'." Alice said. "Mine can be used in combat, but it's more of an evasion or gap-closing move than a damager."

Weiss nodded. "I think that's what makes our team really strong, both as a team and individually. All of our semblances are primed for combat, even Ruby's."

"What does hers do?" Alice asked, curious despite herself.

"Ask her yourself." Weiss said, shrugging. "She can explain it best."

Alice nodded, making a note of it. "What about you?"

"I create different glyphs that do various things, mostly providing a midair platform, a speed increase, or to hold something in place." Weiss said, smiling.

"How does that help you fight?" Alice asked, confused.

Weiss grinned. "You'll just have to find out. What about yours?"

As Weiss asked this she noticed that Chessur was suddenly at Alice's opposite side in a swirl of purple smoke. He said nothing, instead just walking forward, but Weiss was jarred nonetheless by his sudden appearance.

"You just saw Chessur's. He can transfer his body to a place anywhere approximately…what is it, two hundred? Two hundred feet away from him. It takes a few seconds though, and requires a lot of concentration. Not exactly a combat-ready Semblance." Alice said, and Chessur rumbled in agreement.

"Interesting. But what's yours?" Weiss said, pressing the question again.

"Mine is similar to his, but shorter range. But it only drains the smallest fraction of my aura, and I can repeat it as many times as needed. I can only move about five feet, and then I rematerialize for a second before I can immediately do it again."

Weiss nodded. It was certainly a spectacular gap-closer or dodge, but not quite useful for anything else.

…

They eventually arrived in the mess hall and began eating the various foods the cooks had prepared there for lunch. Chessur dived into a plate of tuna salad, with Absolem tearing at a steak. Alice simply had a bowl of salad and some fruit, and Nevins had a sandwich.

Alice situated herself next to Ruby and as she expected, the redhead began chattering.

"So what kind of weapon do you use?" Ruby asked in between bites of her lunch.

"A hunting knife." Alice answered, unstrapping the Vorpal Blades sheath and laying it on the table.

"May I?" Ruby asked, holding her hand out over the sheath. Alice shook her head.

"That is the Vorpal Blade. It is one of the sharpest blades to have been forged. It's been in my family for generations. It cuts through solid steel like a normal knife slides through butter." Alice said, a hint of pride in her voice. Ruby gasped and looked reverently at the blade.

"That's _the_ Vorpal Blade?" she whispered, running her finger gently over the sheath. Alice nodded.

"You've heard of it then?"

"I'm a _huge_ weapon nut. I love weapons. Mine is a HCSS, a High Caliber Sniper Scythe. I call it Crescent Rose." Ruby said, beaming.

Nevins, who was sitting on Ruby's other side, perked up. "You like weapons?" he asked, smiling. His eyes were twitching and he was blinking a lot, but he looked happy.

"I love them!" Ruby said. "Why, what's yours?"

Nevins looked extremely happy as he opened his suit and removed what looked like a short katana from the jackets inside. Unsheathing it, he pressed a button and it extended from six inches to around three and a half feet long. A light hum came off it as electricity crackled along the edges.

"Whoooooa." Ruby said, her mouth dropping open. "It's electric? What else does it do?"

Nevins pressed another button on the handle, and the blade spun back upon itself, turning into a very, very deadly Frisbee, with the hilt as the only safe place to hold it. "See the watch on my wrist? The silvery one? It's bound to the hilt of this sword. Whenever I throw it in this form, it homes back onto me and does it in a way so I always catch it by the hilt."

"That is _so cool_!" Ruby said, clapping her hands. "Did you design that yourself?"

Nevins nodded proudly, smiling. "It's my pride and joy. I've always been good with tinkering, so I modified a higher-end katana to do this stuff. It runs on pure electricity, no Dust required. Although it does need to charge overnight once a month if I don't charge it normally, which I do."

Ruby giggled. She liked Nevins.

Alice sighed as the two got into more and more complex discussions about weapons. When she couldn't take it anymore, she interrupted with the question she sat down to ask.

"Ruby. What is your semblance?" she asked, putting on a smile.

Ruby blinked and turned to her. "I can go really, _really_ fast. I don't really teleport, but it seems like it."

Alice frowned. "Weiss said all your semblances are useful in combat. How does that work? Don't you need to concentrate?"

"I do, but what I'm able to do is get a large amount of distance between myself and the opponent. Then I charge them with a blast of super speed and slam them with Crescent Rose! Or I can use short bursts of it to give myself momentum, which is what my combat style thrives on."

Alice nodded and returned to her meal.

"What's your semblance Nevins?" Ruby asked, turning back to her new friend.

"I can screw with someone's perception. Time, depth, whatever. I can change how they see and perceive the world around them." He said, smiling. "It takes a lot out of me though, but it doesn't require a lot of concentration. Just a _lot_ of Aura. So I can't use it too much, but when I can use it to get that finishing hit in with Slicing Maelstrom, it's worth it."

"Your weapon is called Slicing Maelstrom?" Ruby asked, confused. "Why?"

"It doesn't just do electricity. I said it doesn't need Dust, but I kinda lied. It _can_ utilize Dust to empower the blade with different elements, but Dust is hard to come by. But I can empower it with fire, frost, corrosion, you name it. I prefer to just use the natural non-Dust using electricity though. It's usually just as potent, but there are some situations and certain Grimm that require a different touch. So it's a mess of different elements and it's a super-sharp katana Frisbee. So, Slicing Maelstrom."

Ruby thought that was just the coolest thing, and her level of admiration for Nevins and his super-duper-awesome weapon went up a notch. "What about your weapon?" she asked, turning to Absolem.

Swallowing, Absolem grinned. "This is Heartseeker." She said, pulling the bow off her shoulder. "It doesn't really have any special abilities. But it's _really_ durable and had a very strong string. It's the arrows that do stuff. They're all Dust-imbued and do different things."

Ruby smiled. "Neat! But what about close range fighting? I assume a bow and arrow doesn't do very well in that scenario."

"That's what I have these for." Absolem said, pulling out a pair of steel tanto. "These are my tanto, Mekkei-Mai and Mekkei-Maru."

Ruby's jaw dropped. "Wait, run those names by me again?"

Absolem repeated the names of her weapons and Ruby gasped.

"Please tell me those are the _original_ Mekkei-Mai and Mekkei-Maru." Ruby said, clasping her hands together. Absolem grinned.

"Yep! Been in my family for generations. I never knew what the big deal about them was though."

"Those tanto were the first attempt to recreate the Vorpal Blade in a very long time. They failed, but the weapons they ended up with had extreme amounts of durability and sharpness not often found in normal tanto. Mekkei-Mai and Mekkei-Maru should have sharpness on par or above that of Crescent Rose, which is saying something."

Absolem raised her eyebrows and examined her weapons with newfound interest. "That's neat. Nevins, did you know that?"

Nevins shook his head. "No, I never thought about it. But I do remember reading something about it now that Ruby brings it up."

As the threesome began talking more about weaponry, Chessur appeared next to Blake, who jumped a little.

"Sorry. I didn't mean to startle you." Chessur said, the ever-present half purr in his voice.

"It's fine." Blake said shortly, going back to her food.

"I like that bow of yours." Chessur commented, smiling.

Narrowing her eyes, Blake subconsciously reached up and touched the bow. "Thanks."

"But you know something?" The tone of Chessur's voice changed slightly, going from a deeper tone to a lighter, more teasing voice.

"What…?" Blake asked, suspicion gleaming in her eyes.

"You…smell different." Chessur took a deep inhale through his nose. "I wonder what you could be hiding underneath that bow, hmmm…?"

"I think I'm done talking." Blake said curtly, turning back to her food. Chessur grinned and disappeared, reappearing next to Alice and whispering something in her ear.

Alice nodded and stood up. "I think we'll take our leave for now, I'm sure we're all tired and keeping you from other things. But I think tomorrow we will have to set something up, no? After hearing so much about how you all fight, I think I'd like to see it in action. Is there a place we can train?"

Ruby looked at Alice and smiled. "Yeah, of course. What time tomorrow?"

"Morning, after breakfast."

"Sounds good, we'll take you there after we eat. That alright guys?" she asked, and her team nodded quickly.

"I'm curious to see this 'Vorpal Blade' in action." Yang said, grinning. "Looks pretty sinister."

Alice didn't smile. "You have no idea."

…

As Alice lay back on the bed she had chosen, she went over the day's events. Team RWBY was welcoming enough, although she found their leader too bubbly and childish for her liking. But she was interested to see her fight. She had only seen one HCSS user in her whole life, and he had been the only man to ever defeat her in single combat.

So she was rather looking forward to fighting against the reckless, all-out combat style of a scythe user. At least, that's what she was expecting. She knew there were two ways to fight with a scythe, reckless and all-out, or patient and counterattacking. And Ruby didn't seem the patient type.

She hoped she had finally found someone to match her fire that hopefully _wouldn't _beat her into the ground. She whispered the name she had come to think of so much, the name of the one man that had ever put her down.

"Qrow."

**Author's Note**

**Hoooh boy. And so we begin another story, this time technically set in the canon universe of RWBY! And it's an Alice in Wonderland crossover no less.**

**But I do wish to clarify a few things. First of all, this Alice is the Alice from the video game Alice: Madness Returns, **_**not**_** the Disney version. **

**Secondly, Alice and Chessur are the only two characters from AiW that stay true to their counterparts in terms of flavor. For the names of other characters, I borrowed ones from Tim Burtons Alice in Wonderland movie. Absolem is the Caterpillar, and Nevins is the White Rabbit. And I made Absolem a girl because fuck it, I didn't want a team with three guys and Alice. That would be boring IMO.**

**Anyway.**

**Despite this not being in the Romance genre, I'm still going to include it. Pairings are not yet decided, but with what I've written so far of this, I'm liking Chessur/Blake and Ruby/Alice. Again, these aren't set in stone, and I'm willing to take suggestions. But I'm rather partial to those two, since especially with Ruby/Alice I can use it for THE PLOTZ.**

**But I'm rambling now.**

**As always, reviews are appreciated! I love them. **

**Enjoy the very first chapter of RWBY: The Strife of Sanity, and have a wonderful day!**

**Spike**


	2. Happiness in a Bottle

A gentle breeze lifted Alice's hair and blew it into her face as she stood on one end of the training arena; the Vorpal Blade gripped loosely in her right hand. The blade was silver with a black handle, and it seemed to shimmer and move as the light struck it. She was wearing a uniform provided by Beacon, which she found rather silly but wore it anyway.

Across from her, about twelve feet off, stood Ruby Rose. Her scythe, Crescent Rose, was unfolded and perched menacingly across her shoulders. She wasn't smiling now, and had a serious look on her face. On the sidelines stood the rest of Team RWBY and Team ANAC, along with a blonde bespectacled woman wielding a riding crop.

Ruby had explained earlier to Team ANAC that until they were deemed responsible enough to not kill each other, they were required to have a teacher, or a third-year or higher student supervising. As this was the first time Alice would be fighting on Beacon grounds, Ozpin had requested that Ms. Glynda Goodwitch, who seemed to be his right hand, supervise this one.

She stood silent as a statue, patiently observing and waiting for them to start. They had been given the ready signal about a minute ago, and they had done nothing but observe the other, waiting. Alice was pleasantly surprised to find that the feisty, childish redhead was able to stand stock-still with nary a smile on her face for a full minute.

But all that changed in one explosive moment when they, seemingly in sync with one another, dashed forward at nearly the same moment. Alice felt herself dissipate into a haze of blue smoke and azure colored monarch butterflies, flying forward to meet the girl who had seemingly disappeared in a flurry of rose petals.

As she rematerialized, she had the Vorpal Blade in her right hand hanging by her left side, and she swung it up diagonally to slash across Ruby's chest. In response, Ruby angled Crescent Rose upwards and swung, meeting the Blade mid-swing. They stared into each other's eyes for a moment, and then dashed apart. Alice had the ghost of a smile on her face, as she had seen the same fire that burned in her chest mirrored in the small girl's eyes.

No sooner had they broken apart had Ruby spun Crescent Rose behind her and fired off a round, blasting herself forward. With a hint of her Semblance at work, she rocketed towards Alice at an inhuman speed, and Alice went on the defensive.

She dodged to the left, a cloud of monarchs quickly coalescing back into her solid form, and she dashed in at Ruby's back with a few quick slashes of the Blade, shredding Ruby's Aura.

Ruby frowned and counterattacked with Crescent Rose, hooking the blade behind Alice's waist and firing, jerking the scythe back towards her with the recoil. Alice arched her back as the blow tore through a large chunk of her aura. With a snarl, she got some distance from the deadly weapon with a few uses of her Semblance, and waited.

This proved to be a monumental mistake, as Alice soon learned to never put a good amount of distance between herself and Ruby, who without a hint of hesitation, used her semblance and a few rounds of Crescent Rose to close the distance between herself and Alice in nearly half a second.

Alice felt Crescent Rose slam into her shoulder with an insane amount of force, propelled by the sheer momentum of Ruby's semblance and the massive amount of recoil the scythe produced. She gasped as she felt the armor created by her aura shatter, and she stumbled and fell to the ground, Crescent Rose pressing her down.

"I concede!" she said breathlessly, holding up a hand and dropping the Blade. It sunk point first into the dirt and only stopped at the hilt, cutting into the ground with ease. Alice heaved, completely out of breath and with only a trickle of Aura left.

She felt her heart hammering into her chest as her head began to pound, spots of red appearing before her eyes. A deep note resonated in her mind, thrumming throughout her senses. She clutched her ears for a few moments as the noise slowly died down and her vision cleared.

When she stood up, she saw Ruby looking at her with concern in her eyes, Crescent Rose folded up and strapped back onto her waist.

"Are you alright?" she asked, worried. "Did I hurt you?"

"No, most certainly not. My Aura is all but depleted, but you haven't injured me." Alice said with a small smile on her face.

Ruby laughed and smiled. "You were awesome! That Blade of yours completely _shredded_ my Aura; I was worried there for a bit."

Alice blinked. "So I almost won?"

"You probably would have if you didn't retreat the way you did. Putting distance between yourself and an HCSS user, especially one with my Semblance, is pretty much suicide." Ruby said, laughing a little.

A smile broke out on Alice's face as she responded. "I can tell. Well, that was certainly exhilarating. I haven't had a fight that good since…ages ago."

The two girls sat on the sidelines as Glynda walked up to them and checked Alice over, determining that she wasn't in imminent danger of dying from unseen internal injuries.

"That was certainly something," she said, a serious expression on her face. "I won't deny Rose's talent, but you made a fool move there retreating."

Alice nodded, her smile fading. "I understand. I should have taken her semblance into account and realized that any distance I created could be closed in mere seconds."

Glynda nodded approvingly. "Exactly. Not only that, but you underestimated your own strength, as with only a few strikes on Ms. Rose, you managed to take off approximately half her Aura. Had you simply stayed in close combat, only dodging outside of the hook Rose had on you, you most likely would have won that bout."

"Also," Ruby chirped, "my entire fighting style revolves around momentum and the impact my strikes can gain from it. By creating a good sized distance between us, Alice let me gain a huge amount of momentum, essentially tripling the strength of my blow to her shoulder. Had the distance been even half of what she initially went for, the strike would have been much less powerful."

"Precisely Ms. Rose. Now, Ms. Liddell, I hope you keep all this in mind for your next sparring bout." Glynda narrowed her eyes as she looked at Alice, who nodded seriously.

Ruby looked away from Alice to see that her sister had taken her place in the field, and across from her was Chessur, who stood eerily still compared to Yang's rather bouncy ready stance.

His eyes narrowed and his tail draped loosely on the ground, Chessur looked quite open. Yang wasted no time in dashing forward, cocking Ember Celica and aiming a punch at Chessur's midriff.

Raising his hands up, Ruby noticed he was wearing gauntlets made of some kind of black steel. They were made of overlapping plates that ended in sinister looking fingertips that looked far closer to claws than fingers. On each palm was a glass sphere held in place by a golden circle. Behind it swum a sea of what looked like blue sand.

Holding his hands out in front of him, Chessur concentrated and soon enough a blast of ice enveloped the area in front of him, encasing Yang's feet in solid ice. Chessur growled and clenched his hands into fists, and when he opened them the color of the Dust had changed to red.

Yang huffed in annoyance and punched the ground around her feet, shattering the ice with an explosive blow from Ember Celica. She then looked up and dived to the left, narrowly dodging the cone of flame Chessur was propelling out of the gauntlets. Diving low, she dashed forward and landed a blow on Chessur's stomach, blasting him backwards.

Chessur flipped midair and landed on his feet, snarling. Switching gear, he held his hands up in front of him, clenched into fists. As Yang dashed again, he stuck his index and middle finger of each hand out, and a loud _crack_ was heard as lightning arced between his fingers.

Yang tried to dive out of the way, but was too slow as Chessur put his hands together and jabbed his fingers forward, casting a bolt of lightning that struck her dead in the chest. A loud booming was heard as thunder slammed around them, and the force of the bolt had blasted Yang flat on her back.

With deadly precision, Chessur leapt forward and flipped through the air, switching Dust midair to pure heat. He landed directly on top of Yang, and he gripped his hand around her throat as he heated the air around him, causing Yang's Aura to drain at a rapid pace.

With a victorious grin on his face, Chessur was sure he had this win in the bag. Then he saw that Yang's eyes had changed color. They were bright red, and she seemed to have wisps of flame coming off her hair and body. A loud _crack _was heard as Ember Celica made brutal contact with Chessur's jaw, knocking him five feet into the air.

Chessur landed on his back and Yang walked over to him, cocking and reloading her weapon. She was about to slam a final punch into Chessur's solar plexus when she noticed something strange about his gauntlets. They arced with a light blue crackle of electricity, and she was caught by surprise as Chessur reached up and grasped Ember Celica in his hands.

As Ember Celica was made of metal, it made a rather nice conductor for Chessur's Dust-powered lighting, and Yang jerked around as electricity shot through her body, tearing up her Aura as she fell to the ground.

"Do you concede?" Chessur asked, baring his teeth.

Yang nodded, splayed spread eagle back on the grass. She took a deep breath and pulled herself up as Chessur offered his no longer electrified hand.

"That last bit…was cheating…" she said, heaving. She had her hands on her knees as she bent over double. She twitched a little from residual shock, and her hair was a complete mess, but aside from that she had no real injuries. "That punch to your jaw should have knocked you out cold…"

"My Aura is good at absorbing physical damage, seeing as I train with the wielder of a naturally Aura-shredding weapon." Chessur said, grinning.

Yang nodded as she looked over at Alice, who was watching them with a rather bemused expression on her face. Ruby looked concerned, and Yang waved at her. A smile of relief broke out on her face and she waved back.

Glynda frowned as she walked over to check Yang up. "I think that's enough for today," she said, much to the disappointment of the rest of Teams RWBY and ANAC. "We can't have you all beating each other up day one. Don't worry though, you'll have other chances."

Absolem harrumphed and glared at Glynda, who glared right back. Absolem quailed a little under her gaze and simply huffed and looked away. Chessur grinned and materialized next to Alice, causing Ruby to jump.

"Eek! You scared me!" she said, slapping Chessur on the arm. He blinked and rubbed his arm gently, not quite sure what to do.

He leaned over to Alice and whispered in her ear. She nodded and stood up. "I suppose you lot have classes to get to?" she asked, looking around at Team RWBY.

"Yes, actually, we do." Weiss said, standing up. "Shall we?"

Ruby nodded. "Alright, let's go. You want to come, Alice, or are you good for now?"

"I am going to go rest. Meet up later, then?"

"Alright. See ya!" Ruby said as she waved, running up to her team. They walked inside, chattering, as Team Anarchy stood in the wind and waited.

"Let's return to our dorm." Alice said, walking back. Chessur nodded and faded away in a cloud of purple smoke, and Alice walked with Absolem and Nevins, who was talking on and on about the two fights that just occurred.

…

"Are you sure?" Alice asked Chessur, as the two of them were alone in their room. They had closed the drapes and turned off the lights, so it was rather dark.

"Positive. I could smell her underneath the disguise. They are still hunting you, Alice, and they seem to have infiltrated Beacon." Chessur rumbled, sitting across from Alice, who was pacing back and forth across the room.

"How? Tarrant said the ship was deadlocked and virtually undetectable. How could they have followed us?"

"Educated guess?" Chessur said, shrugging. "Either way, the how doesn't matter so much right now, only the fact that they are here and they are still hunting you."

Alice sighed and sat down, her face in her hands. "Did you pick up a specific scent?" she asked abruptly after a few moments of silence.

Chessur was silent.

"Chessur, was it _her_?"

He nodded slowly and Alice screamed. "That _bitch_!"

"Alice, calm yourself. You're in danger right now, from more than one thing."

Alice screamed again, but this time into a pillow. Her hair had become disheveled and her eyes had a dangerous glint to them. She began hyperventilating, and Chessur jumped to action, fishing inside his bag for a small bottle filled with a purple liquid.

"Drink, Alice. Drink!" he said, unsealing the bottle and holding it up to her lips. She opened her mouth and tipped her head back slightly, allowing Chessur to pour the bottle into her mouth as she gulped down the tincture.

She coughed a few times and then let out a pent up breath. "Thank you, Chessur."

"You shouldn't push yourself so hard, Alice. That fight was too close."

"You know I can control it now."

"Not under stress you can't and this is most certainly stress!" Chessur said sternly, his voice gaining a growly quality to it.

"I am through being hunted! Rose is the only person to match my skill and my strength ever since Qrow, and I am not giving up the opportunity to train with her! It will make me stronger and more capable than ever to take on those blasted fools who consider me nothing more than a trophy, a prize, a weapon!" Alice said hysterically, and Chessur put a finger on her lips.

"Hush, child. We cannot raise our voices, not here." He said quietly with a hiss, his eyes narrowing.

Alice took a deep breath and composed herself. "You're right. Sorry."

Chessur nodded slowly. "I will allow you to train with the Rose girl under one condition."

"You will _allow_ me? Remember who your leader is, cat." Alice said scathingly, and Chessur flinched.

"Then promise me this," he said pleadingly. "In your training, concede at the slightest hint of…it. You cannot afford to have any more close calls, not with them hovering around you like flies on honey!"

Alice sighed. "Very well. But I hope you aren't considering applying that rule to the tournament."

"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it. Now come on, it's lunchtime. They'll be growing impatient."

…

Ruby was sitting at one of the tables with the rest of her team, her friends on Team JNPR, and half of team ANAC.

"Jaune, did you meet our new friends?" Ruby asked a blonde boy sitting across from her.

"Who?" he asked, looking puzzled. Ruby giggled.

"This is Absolem," she said, pointing at the blue haired girl. Absolem winked at Jaune and smiled.

"And that's Nevins." She said, pointing at the little boy sitting next to her. "They're part of team ANAC. I think the team name is…Anarchy, right?"

"Yep." Absolem said, smiling prettily at Jaune. "So you're the leader of Team Juniper, huh? That's pretty cool. And you're an Arc, aren't you?"

"Um…yeah. Are you the leader of your team?" Jaune asked, stumbling a little over his words.

"She wishes." Came a curt voice from behind Jaune. He jumped and looked behind him to see Alice and Chessur.

"Hey guys!" Ruby said, grinning. "Team Juniper, meet the rest of team Anarchy. That's Alice and Chessur."

"I am the team leader, and Chessur is my right hand." Alice said, taking a seat beside Ruby. Chessur frowned, as Alice was now flanked by Ruby and her older sister. He took a seat next to Blake, who ignored him.

Absolem stuck her tongue out at Alice. "Miss High-and-Mighty here thinks herself far superior to everyone else." She said haughtily, smiling at Jaune.

"We have our own Miss High and Mighty ourselves, although we call her Snow Queen." Jaune said, gesturing at Weiss.

"Hey!"

Absolem giggled and continued talking with Jaune, causing the redheaded girl next to him to squirm uncomfortably.

"Pyrrha, are you alright?" asked a black haired boy sitting next to her. "You seem…a bit off."

"I'm alright Ren." Pyrrha said quickly, brushing a stray strand of hair behind her ear. "Just fine."

Ren frowned. He didn't really believe her, but he let it slide for now. Jaune was telling the story of the forming of Team JNPR in the Emerald Forest, lingering on his rather embarrassing moments. Absolem burst out laughing at these, and with each moment Jaune was growing more and more outgoing and animated, causing Ruby to arch her eyebrows at him.

"Is Jaune okay?" she whispered to Yang, who shrugged.

"I dunno. I guess he's not used to having pretty girls go all goo-goo over him." Yang said, smiling.

"Hrm. I'm not quite sure what's gotten into Absol." Alice said, frowning. "She usually hates the idea of flirting with a passion."

"Maybe she just really likes Jaune?" Ruby suggested, shrugging.

"Maybe. Or she just likes his name."

"Jaune?" Ruby asked, confused.

"No, you moron. Arc. The Arc name is renowned across the fighting world, and to meet one in person is probably what's turning Absol into this drooling, giggly mess."

Ruby laughed. "She's gonna be disappointed. Jaune isn't exactly a top-notch fighter."

Alice smiled softly. "She'll either be disappointed, or she'll offer to tutor him. I'm guessing the latter, although it pains me to admit it. She has a big enough head as is, and being the 'personal tutor' to an Arc would just inflate it even more."

Yang whistled softly. "Look at Pyrrha. I think someone's jealous!" she said in a singsong voice. Ruby looked at Pyrrha and saw that she was a bit uncomfortable.

"Why would she be jealous? It's not like Jaune is her boyfriend or anything."

Yang and Alice sighed in unison, then looked at each other with a look of exasperation and understanding. Ruby did not share this feeling.

"What? What is it?"

Alice giggled softly, and Yang followed.

"What's so funny?" Ruby asked, pouting.

"You're just really, really oblivious aren't you?" Alice asked, giggling.

"Shut up!" Ruby said, punching Alice's arm gently.

"Anyway," Yang said, grinning. "If she does offer to tutor him, she'll have to deal with Pyrrha too. She already trains Jaune quite a bit, and I don't think she'd be too keen to accept help, let alone Absolem's."

Alice nodded in agreement. "Absol is persistent though. I get the feeling that we're in for a bit of drama in the future."

"I'll get my popcorn." Yang said, her smile growing.

A short distance away from the hushed conversation sat Chessur and Blake, who both sat in stoic silence, Blake reading her book.

"What are you reading?" Chessur asked, looking at Blake curiously.

She didn't respond.

"You know, I know what you're hiding underneath that bow," rumbled Chessur, grinning. "I can smell it on you."

This got Blake's attention as she glared at Chessur. "Will you stop pestering me?"

"No, probably not."

Blake huffed and returned to her book, the bow twitching slightly. Chessur laughed softly.

"Why do you hide yourself, little one?" he asked in a soft voice. "You needn't hide here. We're all friends, no?"

Blake glared again. "If I talk to you, will you stop talking about this?"

"Possibly." Chessur grinned.

Blake grumbled and began conversing with Chessur. It started innocently, simple icebreaker questions like favorites, have you read/seen X, and so on. Soon enough, Blake found herself rather enjoying talking to the strange Faunus boy, and as hard as she tried, she couldn't _not_ like talking to him.

Soon enough, the entire table was full of conversation, even stoic Alice and Blake were laughing and chatting with friends. It wasn't all mirth however, as Absolem had shifted over to sit next to Jaune, which he found immensely awesome.

His companion however found it much less awesome, as Pyrrha slowly grew more and more grumpy at having Jaune's attention focused completely on this new girl. She shot glares at the both of them, which went unnoticed by most everyone.

Alice smiled. Maybe Beacon wasn't going to be so bad after all.

**Author's Note**

**So I had fun with this. Writing fight scenes is a lot of work, but it's so worth it! **

**Also, Absolem crushing on Jaune is gonna be funny. INB4THELOVETRIANGLEWITHJAUNEPYRRHAANDABSOLEM.**

***cough***

**Anyway.**

**Mysterious plot hints abound as we discover…someone is hunting our beloved Alice. DUHN DUHN DUHHHH. I hope you enjoyed reading Chapter 2 of The Strife of Sanity. And as always, have a wonderful day.**

**Spike**


	3. An Enemy Returns

Alice sat calmly in her room, reading a book. It was one that Blake had lent her, and she found it quite appalling, yet she couldn't put it down. The various love-addled, lust-impaired harebrained ideas and plotlines grabbed at her in a way she couldn't explain, and she had ripped through Blake's book collection in the span of almost three days. Blake herself was having trouble believing it.

"Are you reading that smut again?" Absolem asked, laughing. "Never woulda pegged you for that kind of reading, Alice."

"Hush. Things are getting interesting." Alice said as she turned a page.

Absolem stayed put for a few moments before sidling up next to Alice. "What's it about?"

"It's supposed to be a love triangle, but it isn't. It's more of a love line segment with one very ambitious point. Our heroine is smitten with this boy, who she apparently loves very much and he loves her. But this other boy follows her around like an obsessive puppy, and is quite obviously jealous of the other boy."

"Huh."

"Also, he's a vampire."

"Wait, what? Which one?"

"The first one. The other is a werewolf."

"What?!"

The duo read side by side as Chessur and Nevins watched from the other end of the room, their eyes wide.

"Am I dreaming or are Alice and Absol getting along?" Nevins whispered.

"I don't know." Chessur muttered back. "I think that while we were sleeping, the real Alice and Absol were abducted and replaced with these…things."

"So what do we do?" Nevins whispered.

"We wait and see what they do. They must have some sort of goal."

The two boys whispered conspiratorially as the girls kept reading, and Alice got Absolem caught up on all the various details of the book.

…

A few hours later, they arrived on the training fields to meet up with Team RWBY and Team JNPR for a training session. They noticed that there was no other teacher or student present, and Alice lifted an inquiring eyebrow at Ruby.

"Apparently you're trustworthy now." Ruby said, shrugging. "Anyway, we want to see you guys fight as a team today. So you're going to fight Team JNPR. Neither of you has seen the other fight, and anything you know about each other is only what you have spoken of."

Alice nodded her understanding. "Ground rules?"

"When your Aura is near dangerous levels or you receive a would-be lethal blow, play dead. First team to be all dead wins." Weiss spoke up, settling down on a bench.

Absolem grinned. "Do we get a moment to discuss strategy?"

Ruby looked questioningly at Jaune and Pyrrha, who nodded. "Yeah. Five minutes. Go."

The two teams huddled at opposite ends of the training field, and it was a much larger one than before. It also had a few obstacles on it, large boulders and bushes and so forth. But there was a clear line straight down the middle so the two teams could see each other at the starting positions.

Weiss noticed that Absolem talked much more than Alice during the huddle, with her only putting in a few words here and there. After three minutes they nodded and stood in a formation with Nevins unsheathing Slicing Maelstrom and changing it to its disc form, Alice held the Vorpal Blade loosely at her side, and Absolem unslung Heartseeker from her shoulder and notched an arrow.

Team JNPR was similarly ready, and Yang called the match.

Immediately, Chessur dissipated into a cloud of purple smoke, causing Pyrrha to curse under her breath. A loose Dust Mage was nothing to trifle with. But they went with their battle plan, splitting off into teams of two. Jaune and Ren darted off to the left side going from cover to cover, with Pyrrha and Nora mirroring them on the right.

Alice flew off towards Pyrrha, her semblance taking her across the battlefield in a short amount of time. Absolem had leapt behind a rock and was aiming Heartseeker over it, looking for an ideal target. Nevins had also disappeared, and none of Team RWBY had caught him leaving.

There were a few minutes of silence before Absolem caught Ren darting out from behind a bush. She loosed the arrow notched to Heartseeker, and it struck the ground in front of him, releasing an explosion of ice. Making the ground slick underneath him, it caused him to slip and crash to the ground.

This wouldn't have been so bad if Slicing Maelstrom hadn't come spinning out of nowhere aimed directly at his chest. Jaune darted in front of Ren, shield up, and took the brunt of the hit. The disc bounced off the shield and flew off into a cluster of bushes.

Ren took this opportunity to jump up, and as a duo, he and Jaune rushed the bush. Nevins was waiting for them, Slicing Maelstrom in its full extended form. Ren unleashed a flurry of shots from his dual pistols, but they struck a suddenly appearing wall of ice.

They looked around, confused, only to see a wisp of purple smoke dissipating away from behind them. When they turned, Nevins had similarly disappeared, using his small size to great effect.

Meanwhile, Absolem was taking pot shots at the two of them, and they had to dodge and weave to escape the flurry of arrowy death. She would have kept firing had her Aura-increased senses not picked up a rustling behind her, and a huge metal hammer descended upon her.

She dodged out of the way, slinging Heartseeker across her back and unsheathing Mekkei-Mai and Mekkei-Maru with quick precision, holding the two up in an X to block the swing from Pyrrha's sword. Spinning the blades so she held then pointing down, she began fighting strictly on the defensive, using the extreme durability of the blades to her advantage, narrowly blocking strikes from Milo and Magnhild, with her tanto.

Pyrrha could sense she was wearing down when she saw a hint of blue smoke and an azure butterfly flutter in next to her, and in an instant Alice was bearing down upon her, fire in her eyes. She barely raised Akouo to block the Blade's strike, and the impact jarred her arm. She turned from Absolem to fight this new threat, making sure to not let the Blade touch her, which made going on the offensive a pretty difficult deal.

Absolem, sensing that the fight was now even, began going offensive on Nora, darting in with Mekkei-Mai and Maru, slicing crosswise across Nora's midriff, burning a chunk of her Aura off. But Nora was quick, and slammed Magnhild on top of Absols back, and fired off an explosion, slamming her into the ground.

Pyrrha considered the fight won then, but then a bolt of lightning shredded through her aura, striking her in the back. She gasped and turned, seeing Chessur standing a few feet behind her, his hand raised with his index and middle finger pointed at her, electricity crackling across his glove. He let out a soft laugh as she charged at him, knowing that if she didn't nail him now he'd dissipate off and become a loose threat again.

Swinging Milo down on his chest, she knew he wouldn't have time to teleport away, but she forgot about her previous opponent in the heat of combat and her eagerness to rid the fight of the Dust Mage, and Alice appeared in front of Chessur in a flurry of butterflies and blue smoke her expression cold as ice, blocking Milo with the Blade.

One last swing of the Blade took Pyrrha out of the fight as its natural Aura-shredding ability tore away the last bits of her Aura left remaining from Chessur's previous lightning bolt.

Nora realized she was suddenly in a two versus one fight, and darted off to go find her teammates. Which would have succeeded, but Slicing Maelstrom emerged from the bushes and buzzed in front of her, cutting her off.

She readied Magnhild to blast the first enemy she saw, but Ren appeared and pressed his back to hers.

"Jaune?" she asked breathlessly.

"Separated. Little one is evasive."

Nora nodded and looked out, ready for the wisp of smoke that denoted the arrival of either Chessur or Alice, or the telltale buzz of Slicing Maelstrom.

It was eerily quiet. After a few more moments, Ren realized they were probably hunting down Jaune and bolted, Nora following.

They found Jaune barely holding off Alice, blocking slash after slash of the Vorpal Blade with his shield, concentrating fully on defense. Nora flanked from behind and blasted off a few grenades, which struck empty ground as Alice dissipated away to the right, leaving a trail of smoke.

Nora was about to run after her when Ren stopped her. "It's a trap. They have cover, we don't."

"What do we do? We lost Pyrrha." Jaune said breathlessly. "And no offense Nora, but you aren't that good in enclosed combat like this."

Nora nodded grimly, looking around nervously.

"Absolem is down as well, and she's most definitely their most skilled melee fighter. The problem is-" Ren was interrupted by a blaze of a lightning bolt cutting through their group, narrowly missing them. "That."

Chessur stood about ten feet away from him, purple smoke emanating from him and his hands extended. He was flanked by Alice and Nevins, the Blade gleaming and Maelstrom buzzing.

There was no more speaking as Team JNPR slid into action, flanking Nora as she fired off grenade after grenade. Chessur shot most of them down out of the air and Slicing Maelstrom took care of a few, but eventually a few of them stuck, blasting Team ANAC apart.

Ren and Jaune moved in, Jaune swinging his sword and Ren firing off round after round into Chessur's chest, and he stumbled and collapsed, Aura drained. Nora screeched in shock as Alice dissipated behind her and slashed across her back, putting her out of the fight with one deadly blow.

The remaining duo of Team JNPR realized they were flanked in between one very deadly blade and another very deadly girl.

"Ren what the fuck do we do…" Jaune muttered as he raised his shield, keeping an eye on Nevins, who reverted Maelstrom to its katana form.

Ren shrugged. "Go out with dignity?"

Jaune didn't have time to agree as two things happened simultaneously. First, Nevins charged at Ren, ducking underneath Jaune's shield as he swung at Ren's legs. And as Jaune turned to try and block the swing, Alice appeared in front of him, the Blade pressed against his throat.

Ren was on the ground with the tip of Nevins' katana pressed against his collarbone, and Alice had Jaune beat. They both sighed and raised their hands to surrender.

Team RWBY walked in, clapping slowly. "That…was impressive. I'm surprised you managed to deal with Pyrrha."

"With her semblance, she's weak to a Dust Mage." Chessur rumbled as he picked himself up. "Which is why it was vital that I make myself scarce as soon as possible, make her nervous. It worked, as soon as I blasted her I had her full attention. I was the most threatening thing to her at the time, which let Alice get a strike in with the Blade."

"And that thing is far more powerful than I gave it credit for." Pyrrha said grimly as she emerged into the clearing, pulling leaves from her hair. "Your bolt and one slash from the Blade drained almost my entire Aura."

Alice shrugged. "You noticed I don't really have a fighting style, other than simply going at it. That is why. If my opponent doesn't go completely defensive, I can simply do more damage per second than they can."

Pyrrha nodded. "But how come my semblance didn't work on the Blade? I tried to stop it from hitting me, but it didn't work."

"That was me." Nevins said, raising his hand. "After giving Jaune and Ren the slip, I made my way over to Alice and Absol. I saw Chessur appear, and since I already knew our strat, I basically altered your perception of time. You thought you dashed over to Chess and used your semblance on Alice's Blade when she showed up, but you were too slow, because I fucked up your perception."

Blinking, Pyrrha got a look of admiration on her face, which didn't happen often. "So you didn't beat me because I screwed up, you simply outsmarted me. I'm not sure whether that makes me feel better or worse."

Alice shrugged. "I would feel worse. If I had lost because of a simple mistake, I would be able to rectify that mistake next time. But if I lose through sheer difference of skill, it becomes much different. Now I have to make sure I am smarter, stronger, and better than my opponent next time, instead of simply fixing a mistake."

Pyrrha huffed. "The question was rhetorical, Alice."

"Doesn't mean I can't answer it."

Pyrrha tried to find an answer to that, but couldn't come up with anything. "You're _really_ frustrating sometimes, you know that?"

Alice grinned.

"She knows." Absolem grunted as she appeared, rubbing her back. "Damn Nora, that hammer _hurts_."

Nora giggled. "Yep. You went boom."

Sighing, Absolem walked over to Jaune and punched his arm. "You did good. Those were good reflexes, blocking Slicing Maelstrom the way you did."

"Uhm…thanks?" Jaune said, rubbing the back of his head. "I just kinda moved. It was automatic."

"That's good. If you can do that kind of stuff without really thinking, that just means you're one step closer to being a really good fighter." Absolem said, grinning. "But…the rest of your fighting could use some work."

"Yeah, I know. Pyrrha's trying to teach me, but I learn pretty slow."

"Oh! I can help you if you want! Having two teachers has gotta be better than one, right? And I can teach you when she has classes, since I'm not technically a student here yet."

Jaune considered it, then shrugged. "Sure, why not. It can't exactly hurt anything, can it?"

Pyrrha opened her mouth to protest, but Absolem was already leading Jaune away. "Hey, come over here. I wanna show you a few things. How do you guys usually warm up?"

"Warm up?"

"Oh jeez."

…

Pyrrha was fuming as she walked back to the dorms with Team RWBY and the rest of Teams ANAC and JNPR. Yang fell back to walk beside her.

"You okay?"

"NO. Jaune is a thick, dull, clueless idiot!" she said, seething.

"That's certainly true." Yang commented. "But I don't think he sees Absol in that way."

"Oh really? He certainly was getting all flirty during lunch the other day."

"Pyrrha, you're more obvious about liking him than Ruby about liking sweets. If he isn't picking up on that, he certainly isn't going to pick up anything Absol is putting out. You feel me?"

Pyrrha sighed. "I guess you're right. But what the hell do I do?"

"You could try just walking up to him and kissing him. That should do it."

Pyrrha punched Yang. "I'm not doing that! That's…that's…"

"Perfect. I think you're just nervous."

"I'm not nervous!" Pyrrha said, blushing furiously.

"Riiiight."

Up in front, Ruby bounced next to Alice, giving her a play-by-play of the fight, Ruby-style. "And then Chessur was all like poof! ZAP! And Pyrrha turned around all like 'holy shit' and then got all funky looking, like she was in slow motion. And then you were like ZOOM right in front of-"

"Ruby! I was there. I get it." Alice said, smiling slightly.

"Awh. Fine."

"Anyway, I'm excited to try that sort of thing against your team. It'd probably be much more of a challenge." Alice said.

"Really?" Ruby asked, her eyebrows arching.

"The only thing we were really worried about for their team was Pyrrha, and Nevins and Chessur took care of her easily. Your entire team, on the other hand, is pretty strong."

"Huh." Ruby said, thinking.

"Anyway, I think I need to retire for a bit. I'm tired." Alice said shortly as she turned off and walked to the dorm.

"Alright! Meet ya later?" Ruby asked. Alice gave no response as she flitted off down the halls.

Ruby looked to her other side and discovered Chessur was gone, a wisp of purple smoke taking his place.

…

"Are you alright, Alice?" Chessur rumbled as Alice walked into her room to find him standing by the window.

"I'm seventeen, Chess. I don't need you hanging over me like an overprotective father." Alice said curtly, sitting down on her bed.

"Be that as it may, I still worry."

"Don't. I can handle myself."

"Alice, we both know that isn't exactly true right now."

Alice stayed silent for a few moments longer before speaking up. "Have you caught any other sign of her?"

"She's definitely here, I can tell you that. Where exactly is going to be more difficult, seeing as it's hard in the first place picking out her scent amongst the thousands of others littering this place."

Alice brought her knees up to her chest. "Keep looking. They're bound to stumble at some point, they always do…"

"He's here too."

Jerking up, Alice jumped out of bed and walked up to him. "What?"

"That man, the one you spoke of before. I smelled him earlier, around the training field."

Alice backed off a few steps, shock evident on her face. "Why is Qrow here?"

"You know he's interested in your progress. He could be just checking in on you."

Alice shook her head. "Not likely. What ties could he have to Beacon? He's a teacher at Signal…"

…

Later that night, Chessur found himself on top of the roof, watching the night sky. He was daydreaming when a familiar scent caught his attention.

"Hello now…" he muttered. Crouching down, he tried to figure out where it was coming from, and slowly moved after it.

After about thirty minutes, he found a group of three people standing in the hall, talking about something. One of them had green hair and was female, the other gray hair and male. He was taller than the first girl and the other woman with them, a raven-haired girl.

Chessur hissed under his breath as he heard the silky voice that had haunted him for a while now.

"So the girl is here?" the raven-haired woman asked the two.

"Positive. She's under the wing of that Team RWBY though, which is going to be annoying."

"Hmm….Are you sure it's her?"

"Alice Liddell, leader of Team Anarchy. Never see her alone, she always has that cursed cat clinging to her, or that bothersome Ruby girl."

"That's her…..so she did come to Beacon. What's Ozpin up to?"

Shrugging, the boy spoke up. "Who cares? Let's just kidnap her and make a break for it."

"Mercury you idiot, we can't do that." The woman said in a scathing tone. "There needs to be some measure of thought going into this. We need to get rid of the cat at the very least, along with that Ruby girl."

"I can deal with the girl." The girl spoke up, grinning. "She doesn't seem too hard to deal with."

"Very well. You two stay away from the cat. We have an old score to settle…" the woman muttered as she walked off, not noticing the gentle wisp of purple smoke dissipating in the corner…

…

Chessur stood in the center of the room, his hands clenched into fists. Alice was awake and staring at him with bright eyes.

"What? What is it?" Alice asked sharply, getting out of bed.

"I just saw her."

Alice blanched. "What?"

"They are here for you. And we're all in danger. You, me, that Ruby girl. All of us."

As soon as Chessur mentioned Ruby, Alice hardened. "Alice?" Chessur asked as she snarled.

"They should keep her out of this. She has done nothing wrong."

Chessur blinked. Alice? Thinking of other people? This wasn't like her.

"You cannot control that. Alice, we should leave, soon." Chessur said, gripping Alice's shoulder.

"No."

"….no?"

"I will not abandon them to the mercy of that witch." Alice hissed. "I _must_ protect them."

Her mind raged as she thought of the situation. She knew that if she was to leave, Ruby would suffer. She couldn't put a finger on why she felt so angry at that thought, but she didn't really care.

_I _will_ protect her. She will not fall to the same thing that befelled my family._

_ You will burn in hell, Cinder Fall, for the crime you did to my family._

_ YOU WILL BURN!_

**Author's Note**

**Things are heating up (heh) as Alice discovers the identity of someone she apparently has some kind of history with is still on her tail. Duhn duhn DUHHH!**

**Plot, ahoy! As the tournament nears, so does the White Fang, closing in tighter and tighter. Let's see how Alice and Co. deal with this, eh?**

**Please remember to leave a review, as it helps out a lot!**

**Enjoy Chapter 3 – An Enemy Returns, and have a wonderful day.**

**Spike**


	4. The Fires of the Past

Alice awoke in a cold sweat, the bright orange flare of dancing flames still burning in front of her eyes. She screamed, and clutched the blankets close to her chin, her eyes wild and her hair in a tangled mess.

She heard nothing but white noise and saw nothing but the hypnotic dance of the fire that blazed in her mind, vaguely aware of Chessur sitting next to her, shaking her. Her scream continued until her throat was raw and her lungs burned for air.

The noise in her head slowly dissipated as she heard a faint female voice urgently speaking in front of her, and the flames faded as a face came into view, her vision slowly returning to normal. She saw red hair, a round face, and bright silver eyes with deep concern in them. The voice grew louder and louder as the noise faded away.

"Alice? Alice, are you okay? Speak to me!" Ruby said, her hands on Alice's shoulders. She was sitting on her bed on Alice's legs, and she had her shoulders in a tight grip.

"Ruby…?" Alice whispered, her voice hoarse and grating on her throat.

"It's me Alice, I'm here." Ruby said as she threw her arms around Alice, who remained locked in her position, eyes blankly staring forward.

"You're…here." She whispered. "Why…are you…here?"

"I heard you screaming…are you okay?" Ruby asked, the concern evident in her voice.

"No…no, no, no, no, no, no…." Alice muttered, rocking back and forth. "Gone, all of them, gone…the smoke the ash, burning, burning, BURNING!"

"Chessur, what's wrong with her?" Ruby asked, panicking a little.

"She's having a terror, Ruby. Don't let go of her, she might hurt herself." Chessur said, his voice serious. "It should subside in a few moments."

"All of them…dead….and all my fault…" Alice whispered, tears streaming down her cheeks. She suddenly threw her arms around Ruby and began sobbing into her shoulder. Ruby clutched her close, feeling very protective of her friend.

The rest of Team RWBY had walked in and were standing silent and still in the doorway.

"You should leave." Absolem said grimly. "When she gets like this it takes a good couple of hours for her to recover. We usually stay with her, she freaks and tries to hurt herself otherwise."

"We, um, have classes…" Weiss said, and received an elbow to the ribs courtesy of Blake. "Ow!"

"Ruby can afford to miss a few classes." Blake murmured, directing Weiss away. "She gets good grades, she'll be fine."

"You gonna be alright Rubes?" Yang asked, a gentle smile on her face.

"Yeah. But you should be more worried about Alice." Ruby said, sniffling. "Why is she so upset?"

"That's for her to tell you. Not even we know. In fact, Alice doesn't talk to us much at all. Even me. To her, we're just teammates." Chessur rumbled.

"But…you're her friends, aren't you?" Ruby asked, confused.

"I like to amuse myself sometimes by thinking that, but no. Not really. Have you ever heard her use that word? Friend? She might act nice, and she might smile, and laugh. But she has never let anyone close to her. We know almost nothing about her past, and only I know a few details, and those details are merely people she wants me to keep an eye out for."

Ruby racked her brain. She knew Alice was her friend. She had said friendly things to her, right? But as she thought, she realized she knew…barely anything about Alice.

"She keeps people at a distance. I don't know why. But she has never in her life had anyone she really cared about, or that she fears losing."

Ruby fell silent as she absorbed this information.

"Come Absol, Nevins. It's about time we sat in on a class. We can do no more here, Alice won't let Ruby go and we can't exactly help her like this." Chessur said softly as he stood up.

Absolem opened her mouth to argue, but Chessur snarled. "Need I remind you, Absol, that in the case of Alice being dead, injured, or otherwise incapable of leading, you answer to me? Leave the girl alone and drop it."

Nevins left and followed Team RWBY down the hallway, quickly followed by Chessur and a scowling Absolem.

Alice continued sobbing into Ruby's shoulder for the next five minutes, then slowly calmed down and unwrapped her arms. Slumping back onto the bed, she covered her eyes with her hands and took a deep breath. Ruby fetched a tissue from the nightstand and wiped her face off.

"Thank you, Ruby…" Alice said quietly. "Sometimes they can't wake me up…they cannot reach me. But you did, God knows why. So thank you."

"What _happened_ Alice?" Ruby whispered in shock, her eyes still wide.

Taking a deep breath, Alice sat up. Her face was dead of all emotion, but in her eyes swam a sea of anger, sadness, loss. And…guilt? Ruby sat quietly as Alice composed her thoughts.

"I was very young when it happened," she whispered, almost too quietly for Ruby to hear. "My parents, my sister, had retired. Gone to bed. I stayed up late in the library, reading."

"I put one last log in the fireplace. I was cold. Thirty minutes later, the fire burned out and I went to bed. I awoke to a sea of orange, the light searing my eyes. Smoke had filled my lungs and ash had settled into my ears, eyes, and nose. I fell from the bed, coughing, throwing up the ash and smoke that had invaded my body. I cried out for my parents, but no one responded."

"I remember crawling over to the door to open it. It burned, but I got it open and nearly fell down the stairs, my eyes and lungs stinging and burning from the smoke. I cried out once more for my mother, my sister. My father. This time I got an answer."

"But not the one I wanted. I heard a scream, a deathly scream that even now still rests in my mind and destroys my dreams! My sister, crying out as the fire consumed our house!"

"If I could, I would have been crying. But the smoke and ash had dried out my eyes, and I simply ran for the door, to get out. A section of the floor collapsed from above me and blocked my way with fire, and the seared body of someone….someone that I now know to be my father, burned to an unrecognizable state by the uncaring fury of the flames."

"My dress caught. I didn't even notice though, as I ran for one of the windows and smashed into it, shattering it. I landed in the garden, still burning. I noticed the pain then, as my entire back had caught on fire as I burned. I rolled on the ground and it eventually stopped. I passed out."

"But before I did, I saw. I saw a woman, with raven hair and a dress with fire stitched into the very threads. Her voice was like cyanide mixed with sugar, as she laughed. She _laughed_. Then she was just gone, in a burst of white flames. Then the blackness consumed me and I was gone."

Ruby's jaw was slack, tears running down her face. She couldn't make a sound as Alice slowly got up out of the bed.

"Take off my shirt." She said numbly, holding out her arms. "Please."

Ruby slowly stood and helped Alice pull off her shirt, revealing a terrible scar warping and twisting on her back, marring the otherwise perfect smoothness of her pale skin. The scar ran from her waistline up to beneath her shoulders, a horrid reminder of a terrible event.

"Oh my god…" Ruby whispered as she found her hand reaching out and tracing over the deadened skin. "Why…why couldn't they fix it?"

"I chose to keep this." Alice said, her voice choked up. "I chose to keep this scar as a reminder that at a moment's notice, everything I love can be torn from me. Everything I care about is mortal, and the universe is cruel. I chose to keep this scar because this is what defines me. This world is no Wonderland, with tea and White Queens. It is a terrible place with monsters crawling every corner."

"But…you have your team. And you have your friends. And you have me…" Ruby said, touching Alice's shoulder.

She didn't move. "Ruby, what are the monsters in this world?"

"The Grimm." Ruby said without hesitation, and Alice chuckled grimly, hanging her head.

"And I hope you never encounter a monster fiercer than them," she said, her teeth gritted. "But you are wrong. The real monsters, the ones that should make you shiver and quake in your bed at night are _us_. The human race. People like that woman who harm and destroy others for _pleasure_. They are the true monsters, making the Grimm seem tame."

"That is why I am a Huntress," Alice whispered. "I rid the world of monsters. And the monsters fear me."

"I am Alice. I am what the monsters fear."

Ruby was silent. Then Alice felt arms around her bare waist, a face pressed into her back. A strange wetness was dripping down her skin as she realized Ruby was shaking.

"Ruby…"

"You can't say that!" Ruby said, her teeth clenched together and her voice choked. "You have people who love you and care about you and hate to see you cry! So you can't say that! Not ever!"

"You don't understand." Alice whispered.

"Yes I do! My mother was killed and I never even got to say goodbye! She was a Huntress, just like us! Out on a mission and she was taken from me!"

Alice clenched her fists. "Then why do you do this? If you understand my pain, then how can you be so cheerful?!"

"Because I believe that this world can be kind!" Ruby cried out, holding Alice tighter. "Bad things happen to people, but look at all the good there is in the world! I may have lost my mother, but I have the greatest older sister in the world! I have my friends that are the best friends of all! I have Blake, and Weiss, and Jaune! And Pyrrha, Nora, Ren, and a bunch of other people!"

"And they could be taken too! Just like your mother, just like my parents, and my sister! The pain, the loss, it isn't worth it!" Alice screamed out, her fists tightening. Her eyes were shut tight, and a few tears dripped down onto her cheeks. "That is why I am alone. It's much easier to be alone, and by yourself than to have your heart ripped out of your chest and shredded to pieces."

Ruby wasn't sure why she did when she did. She spun Alice around, not caring that she was topless, and slapped her across the face. Alice stumbled back a few steps, stunned.

"You…you just slapped me." She said dumbly, her hand on her cheek.

"Because you're…you…..are such…an idiot!" Ruby screeched, her face wet. "When people die, it's sad! But that doesn't mean you shouldn't have friends! The relationships you make, the people you grow close to, those people make you stronger! Even now, even though you claim that you're alone, you're still fighting for someone!"

Alice blinked. "What do you mean…?"

"You're fighting in their memory, aren't you?" Ruby said, her voice choked with anger. "Your family! They're the reason you fight, aren't they?"

"So what if they are?" Alice lashed out.

"So why can't you fight like that for the people who are alive who care about you?!" Ruby said, and Alice took a step back from her ferocity. "At the end of the day, you're still fighting for someone! You said you wanted to rid the world of monsters. Don't do it for the people who are gone, do it for the people who care about you _now_!"

"And why do you fight then?!" Alice said loudly, pointing. "Aren't you fighting for the same reason as I am?"

"I fight so that no one has to go through what I did!"

Alice blinked and looked at Ruby's eyes. "What…?"

"I fight so that Blake, Yang, Weiss, Jaune, and everyone else in this stupid, unfair world doesn't lose anyone ever again! Not for revenge, or for the memory of her. I fight for _them_."

"But…."

"Not a day goes by where I don't think about Mom. But I don't think about the pain of losing her. I think of all the good times, the happy times I had with her. The things we did together. The jokes we told at dinner. The cereal she spat all over the table when I told her that a boy asked me out!"

Alice was silent. She didn't remember the last time she thought about a happy memory of her family. Only that one dreadful night.

"That's why friends and relationships are worth it." Ruby said, sitting back onto the bed. "The memories and experiences we share with them are a thousand times stronger than the pain of having them torn away."

Alice collapsed onto the floor, tears dripping onto the floor. Ruby walked over to her and put her arms around her.

After a few minutes, she spoke up again. "I'm…an idiot."

"No. You're just a lost little kitten." Ruby whispered, smiling.

Alice sniffed. "How did we even get to this conversation anyway?"

Ruby laughed. "I don't know, but I'm glad we had it. In movies, this sort of stuff always simmers and boils underneath the surface, causing a ton of problems. It's good we got it out of the way early."

Alice giggled. "Yeah. You're right."

The two girls sat in silence for a few moments longer. Then Ruby spoke up again.

"Hey Alice?"

"Yeah?"

"You're still shirtless you know."

Alice blinked. "I knew that."

Their laughter could be heard echoing down the halls as Alice made her first, and currently only, friend.

…

"Ruby?" Alice asked as they walked down the hallway towards the mess hall.

"Yeah?"

"Could you, um, keep quiet about what we talked about?"

"Of course! I'm not that insensitive." Ruby scoffed, reaching out to grasp Alice's hand. "But…I have a question for you."

"Go for it."

"Chessur said you never spoke to anyone about your past. Why me?"

Alice was silent for a few minutes before she answered. "While that isn't totally true, I don't know. But I haven't kept completely quiet about my past. Chess knows a few things, but he doesn't know the whole story. Only the things I thought were important at the time for him to know, as my teammate."

"You need to stop seeing them as your teammates and more as your friends." Ruby scolded gently.

"Even Absolem?" Alice asked jokingly, a smile breaking out on her face.

"Yes, you dummy. Even her. And besides, she isn't that bad. She just thinks that you treat her like a five-year-old and that gets on her nerves."

"But she acts like a five-year-old!"

"Because you don't trust her." Ruby said, grinning. "Try giving her a little credit, eh? I watched her fight, she's insanely talented. Almost as much as Pyrrha, and her aim with that bow is impeccable."

"She is good." Alice muttered. "I just can't stand her attitude."

"She also has to be smart, because unless your team is a bunch of mind-readers, she seemed to do most of the talking when you lot were discussing strategy for that teamfight against Team JNPR."

Alice shrugged.

"C'mon. Just try it. Give her some leeway and some responsibility. Show her that you have faith in her abilities and that you trust her, and I guarantee that she'll be a lot less of a toddler." Ruby said, grinning.

"Since when did you become so wise?" Alice muttered, rubbing the top of Ruby's head.

"I had to deal with Weiss."

"Nevermind."

…

Lunch was concluded with much chattering of the three teams, with Teams ANAC and RWBY expressing concern over Alice, and she made many protests that she was fine now.

Chessur sat next to her and quietly observed her talking to Ruby, who sat on her other side. Eventually Alice noticed and leaned over to whisper in his ear.

"Hey. Um…sorry about calling you 'cat' the other day. And a few weeks ago. And…you get the point."

Chessur blinked in surprise. "It's fine." He rumbled back, not sure what had gotten into his leader. So he nearly had a heart attack when Alice offered her hand.

"Friends?"

"…friends." Chessur said with a grin as he shook Alice's hand, who grinned right back. _That caped girl must be some kind of wonder drug to make Alice do that_ he thought.

Alice, Chessur, and Ruby found themselves walking down the hall together as they walked back to the dorms, everyone else having some sort of other engagement. The trio was talking about some random topic when they nearly ran into Ozpin, who was talking with a group of three people.

"Ah, Ruby, Alice! And…Chessur?" he said, smiling slightly. "I want you to meet some people that are going to be staying with us for a while. They've come from Vacuo to participate in the tournament. May I introduce their…leader? Leader, Cinder Fall."

A woman with raven colored hair and a black dress with orange patterns turned and looked at the threesome. Alice's expression became stony, Chessur let out a hiss of shock, and Ruby grinned and held out her hand.

"Hi, I'm Ruby! Welcome to Beacon!"

"Greetings…Ruby." Cinder said smoothly, shaking her hand. "And…I'm sorry, have we met before?" she asked, looking at Alice with narrowed eyes.

Alice was pinching her arm behind her back quite hard to keep her voice level. "No. We haven't."

"Hm. You look familiar. Anyway, nice meeting you. I'm sure we'll be seeing each other around…" Cinder said with a smile as she turned and walked off, her two friends in tow. Ozpin had turned and walked off in the opposite direction, saying something about a refill.

Ruby smiled. "She seems nice!"

Then she turned and saw the expressions on her friend's faces, and her own expression immediately turned uncertain.

"What?"

**Author's Note**

**Hm. This came out a lot different than I thought.**

**I had started writing this chapter to maybe dangle the thread of Alice's past with a nightmare, then…that happened. Oh well. More fuel for my planned RubyAlice pairing.**

**I like it. **

**But we're about to get a lot deeper into the plot, with Cinder making her move. **

**But Spike, you cry, the ending of Chapter 3 doesn't work with this chapter at all! It's like two completely different characters! – What you are thinking about this chapter.**

**I may have written it badly, I don't know you tell me, but Alice doesn't **_**know**_** why she wants so badly to protect Ruby. When all she's done her whole life is shut people out, only saying what is absolutely necessary, having any sort of positive feelings about someone is just plain**_** weird**_**.**

**Anyway, please remember to review! It makes me happy! And happy Spike means more chapters!**

**As always, please enjoy Chapter 4 of The Strife of Sanity – The Fires of the Past, and have a wonderful day.**

**Spike**


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